Just Friends
by theDarkestZero
Summary: My name is Isa Tsuki. And never in all my life have I ever dreamed I would fall for Lea Kasai. I'm a nobody with no friends. He's this wannabe football player who's decently popular. And I thought he was straight. By some twist of fate we become close friends. Too close. I didn't think he actually liked me like that. But if anybody asks, he'd tell you we were just friends.
1. One

**Welcome to my first fanfiction in over a year! I decided to write this to quench my thirst for writing and to attempt to break free of my accursed Writer's Block. This isn't your standard romance story. It will probably be slow at first, as I want this to be realistic and not happen all at once. In fact, this is SOMEWHAT based off of something that HAS happened in my life. I'm sorry if the story starts out rather slow, so forgive me! Warnings for this story: strong language; a lot of sexual themes; talk of depressing subjects such as suicide; male-on-male love/sex. Don't like, don't read. Anyway, let's get into this!**

 **.**

 **One**

Another blistering hot day. I couldn't begin to explain to you just how hot it was. It was currently midway through September and the temperature was just barely grazing one hundred degrees. At least the teachers at my school had the decency to keep the classrooms as frozen as possible. But stepping out those double doors was like walking into a blazing furnace.

School was over for the day. The buses were ready and waiting in the parking lot. Sweat coated my face and my clothes clung to my skin, and my light blue hair was matted to my forehead. I felt absolutely gross. Making my way to my bus, I attempted to avoid getting ran over by the crowds of seemingly endless imbeciles. People at this school had no respect at all. I was pushed and shoved and knocked into about a dozen times before reaching my bus—bus 294—without so much as an "I'm sorry" or an "excuse me".

Stepping onto the bus was not any better. It felt like all of the heat from outside was trapped on the inside of this death wagon. The seats were carved into, drawn on, or ripped to shreds; the ground was covered in candy wrappers and empty chip bags; the windows were either jammed shut or unable to close. The musky scent of body odor lingered in the air.

I sat in my usual seat. The second seat on the left side of the bus, with a dull red number **"3"** above the window that was torn in half. I was always the fourth or fifth one to get onto the bus. The others that were on before me were decent enough. The others that would get on after me, however, would always wait until the last possible moment to get on, often delaying our bus by one minute and causing the line of buses behind us to be late as well. I hate bus rides.

When the bus finally did take off, I had to grab the back of the seat in front of me for support. The bus always started with that agonizing lurch. I took a good look at my bus's student body. There were about seventeen males, and a only seven or eight females. Most of them were either idiot jocks, stuck-up cheerleaders, stoners and alcoholics, or the two or three kids who would always keep to themselves. I much preferred those guys.

I took my lousy smartphone out of my pocket, plugged in a pair of light blue earbuds, and tried to find a decent tune. When I had stumbled on the right song, I immersed myself in my thoughts. I began to think of several "what-if" scenarios. What if the bus spontaneously combusted due to the extreme heat outside, and in the following explosion, everyone but me were to perish? What if I finally decided to take my dislike for my classmates to extreme measures and brought a gun or a knife to school? What if each and every one of these losers vanished off of the face of the world so I would finally have my peace?

I had to crank up the volume due to excessive screaming coming from a few seats behind me. I tilted my head only slightly so I could get a look without having them wonder why I was staring in their direction. It was the sixth seat on the right side, and there that bastard who was making all the racket was. Lea _fucking_ Kasai. Why was I not surprised? We had sixth period together, and I think I knew him in middle school but we didn't really hang out because he was always a grade lower than me.

He was shouting at the people sitting in the seat to the left of him and in the seat behind him, waving his arms for emphasis. I cranked up the volume even more, almost sure people would start to hear the music exploding from my tiny earbuds.

The bus pulled onto our street and stopped at each of the students' houses. Most of the students would take an _agonizing_ eternity before finally getting off the bus. I don't see why they weren't in any hurry to get off. Instead they would continue talking to their friends, horsing around and pushing each other and laughing. Finally there were around eight people left on the bus.

Most of the idiot schoolmates of mine had already gotten off, and the bus was now almost completely silent. I glanced in Lea's direction and smirked. He was all alone without many people to talk to, so he just pressed his head against the window and closed his eyes.

Six people on the bus remained. The bus had lurched to a halt in front of a driveway leading to a rusty colored trailer. Lea hopped out of his seat and walked down the aisle, looking at the remaining people on the bus as he took his leave. His eyes fell upon me, but he quickly looked away as he stepped off of the bus, crossed the street and walked down his driveway. I watched him walk down the driveway as the bus began moving.

When four people including myself remained, the bus had finally stopped at my driveway, covered with white pebbles and stones instead of having the usual cement driveway. I stepped off of the bus, hearing the bus driver tell me, "Have a nice day," and I crossed the street over to my driveway.

I was so glad to be back home. It was my favorite part of the school year. Sometimes I wish I had a little more recognition, but I quickly dismiss those thoughts when I realize I'm glad I wasn't noticed much. The first and only time anyone paid any real attention to me was when I started to publicly date a guy for three months last school year. People were shocked, disgusted, proud, just about any reaction you can think of from a high school student body. But as soon as him and I ended things, I became yesterday's news and went back to being the school nobody.

I sighed with relief as I entered my air-conditioned abode. My Grandma Lydia greeted me in the doorway, I gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and then I headed to my bedroom. I plopped down on my dark blue bedspread, took my laptop out from under my bed, and opened it.

After I logged in with my ultra top secret password of _"lunadiviner7"_ , I was greeted by the welcome screen that said in big bold letters, " **WELCOME, Isa Tsuki** ".

 **.**

 **So how'd you enjoy the first chapter? Sort of slow, huh? I promise it'll pick up later down the line. Also remember, this story is NOT just ONE BIG SEX STORY. There is actual plot, filler, etc. in between the sexual stuff so if you're looking for a story that's just sex and nothing else, this is not the story for you. I have the rating as Teen for now but should I change it to Mature to accommodate for the sexual stuff in later chapters? Anyway, I will try to update this story quite often. Thanks for reading! Please leave a review, it helps a lot!**


	2. Two

**Welcome back! I had meant to finish and post this chapter yesterday but at least it's up now. I hope you enjoy this one. I hadn't realized how short the previous chapter was until I had already posted it, so I tried making this one longer but didn't want it** ** _too_** **long either. Also, here's a warning. This chapter has a lot of talking about depression and suicide, as will several points throughout the rest of the story. So if you don't want to read anything too serious like that, I suggest you stop. Even though the way I write it may not be too serious, some people may not be able to handle reading it. Just a quick warning. Anyway, let's get into this chapter!**

 **.**

 **Two**

It was a little after five o'clock in the afternoon. My bedroom was completely shrouded in darkness, save for the light of my laptop illuminating my face. I loved the dark. It was always so calming. Most of my time outside of school consisted of laying in bed in near-complete darkness while I surfed the web, watching YouTube videos or Netflix, or going on FacePage to check my notifications. I scrolled through my timeline. It was barren. Only those who I considered close friends were on my friends-list. A grand total of seven. And my grandmother. So eight. Last year my ex boyfriend talked me into getting a FacePage account, but I rarely used it at all. It didn't matter, though. Today I only had three notifications.

Ienzo liked one of the photos I took of myself five weeks ago. Grandma Lydia sent me a _Fruit Smash Saga_ request. The final notification I had to check was actually a message. When I saw who had messaged me, my heart fluttered a bit. It was my ex boyfriend, Marluxia. We still kept in contact, but as friends, nothing more. Still, seeing a message from him had my heart beating at a suddenly faster pace.

"What could he possibly want," I grumbled to myself. I both loved and despised him. Loved him because we could talk for hours without it being weird, and I actually enjoyed our long talks. Despised him because I loved talking to him. I was supposed to be moving on, not talking to my ex on a semi-daily business. Then again, there shouldn't be anything wrong with remaining friends with an ex. I looked over the text he had sent me.

 _Marluxia: Sup._

Really. _Sup?_ The thing I did hate him for was how he did not know how to start a good conversation. And most of his texts were one sentence at maximum. Sometimes even one word. I had sometimes thought the only words in his vocabulary were "Sup", "Wyd", "Kool", and "Lol". I put my fingers to the keys and replied back to him.

 _Isa: Nothing much at the moment. Same as always. You?_

I decided against asking why he was messaging me. That might come off as rude. While I waited for him to respond, I looked at the small square icon on the side of his name in the chat. He glared at the camera and only had on a half-smile. His pink hair was perfect.

 _Marluxia: Same._

I sighed in exasperation. Another of his overly used words and limited vocabulary: "Same". He talked so much in person and over the phone, the least he could do was type out a full sentence. I waited to see if he would message me again, but he didn't.

 _Isa: So what's up?_

 _Marluxia: Aggravated._

 _Isa: Oh really? What for?_

Marluxia being aggravated was nothing new. He was rarely ever in a good mood which was half the reason I dumped him last year. I saw the dots signaling that he was typing out his message. He was typing for over a minute. That wasn't a good sign.

 _Marluxia: One of my friends is depressed. I keep trying to help him out and cheer him up but nothing works. He thinks he has no friends and that he's useless and he keeps talking about how he wants to kill himself. This isn't the first time he's talked about suicide but I'm still really worried about him._

Well that wasn't good.

As much as I hate most of the people in the world I wouldn't wish depression on anyone. Nobody deserved to feel that way. To feel that death was the only option. I began to type to Marluxia but I erased it halfway through. I couldn't even think of what to say.

 _Isa: That's not good._

 _Marluxia: No_

 _Marluxia: It's not._

 _Marluxia: Can you help him out maybe?_

What would I be able to do? I didn't know any of Marluxia's friends. Talking to them would have been awkward. Then again, I should have at least attempted to help whoever it was out. Who knows, it may save there life.

 _Isa: Maybe?_

 _Isa: I don't know. Who is he?_

 _Marluxia: Lea_

 _Isa: …_

 _Isa: Lea who?_

 _Marluxia: Kasai. Know him?_

Was Marluxia serious? I thought back to every day I would see that annoying redhead on the bus. He always smiled unless he was by himself. In class he would mouth off to the teacher and cut up with a few of the other jackasses in there. He didn't seem like your typical depressed teen. I was surprised he was friends with Marluxia. I'd never seen them hang out together.

 _Marluxia: You still there?_

 _Isa: Uh yeah_

 _Isa: I know him. He rides my bus._

 _Isa: I can talk to him I guess. Don't know how much of a help I can be._

 _Marluxia: Thanks_

I went type in Lea Kasai's name in the search bar at the top left of the FacePage screen. I clicked on the correct name and was brought to his page. I was greeted by his profile picture, one of those shitty selfies taken in front of a mirror, where he was wearing a baseball cap backwards on his head and showing off his biceps by wearing a muscle shirt. He looked absolutely ridiculous. But I clicked the message button anyway, and the chat box popped up with the words, "Start chatting with Lea!" in the center.

 _Isa: Hey there._

And then I waited. I hope it wasn't too awkward for him to see a message from me, someone he'd never talked to on a daily basis.

 _Lea: Yo_

 _Lea: Marluxia said you'd message me_

Good, so it wasn't completely out of the blue then.

 _Isa: yeah, Marluxia told me you needed some help._

 _Lea: needed someone else to talk to I guess_

 _Isa: So what's wrong?_

 _Lea: Didn't Marluxia tell you all that?_

 _Isa: Not all of it._

 _Lea: I just hate my life right now_

 _Lea: I don't have any real friends just a bunch of dicks who only care about themselves_

Wow, I hadn't expected that answer. Well, I knew all of those guys were dicks who only cared about themselves,but I thought Lea was one of those dicks. Apparently Lea was a much more sensitive guy. I didn't really know what to say to that.

 _Isa: Surely you have some actual friends who care about you_

 _Lea: Just Marluxia really_

Again, I couldn't think of anything else to say. How does one comfort someone who thinks everyone hates him?

 _Lea: He's the only one who actually talks to me about stuff that matters_

 _Isa: Haha I know what you mean_

 _Lea: but still I wish I was dead_

My chest felt kind of heavy. It was one of those feelings you'd get if you were on the verge of crying and you were just barely holding in your tears. I didn't particularly like Lea. At all. But I felt really bad for him.

 _Isa: Don't say that_

 _Lea: It's true nobody would miss me_

 _Isa: That's not true!_

 _Lea: I don't have any real friends but Marluxia and my mom's a bitch and my sisters are annoying as fuck I feel like nobody really cares about me_

Well then. I hovered my fingers over the keyboard, trying to think about what I could possibly say to cheer him up, but I came up blank. I still felt sorry for him, but he was starting to sound really selfish. So what if he had almost no friends? He still had Marluxia to talk to. And aren't all parents bitches in their child's eyes. And of course his siblings would annoy him, that's their job.

 _Isa: At least you have Marluxia to talk to._

 _Lea: I guess that's true but my home life still sucks my moms way too strict_

 _Isa: She probably just cares a lot about you like all moms do. Don't take her for granted._

 _Lea: I guess_

 _Lea: why are u helping me out tho_

 _Isa: I don't really know you that much but I still care about you._

It was true, I guess. I mean, he still wasn't my favorite person, but he was going through a rough time in his life and needed all of the support he could get. I waited a while for Lea to respond. One minute. Two minutes. Three minutes.

 _Isa: Lea?_

Another minute went by. What the fuck? I felt this sudden sense of dread wash over me like a tidal wave. I worried a lot when a person would take minutes to answer me, but that was only because I knew my few friends would message me back quickly. I didn't know how fast Lea normally texted.

 _Isa: You still there?_

I felt my body start to itch uncomfortably. It was seven minutes now. He really should have answered me back. It was still saying he was online so he couldn't have gotten off of FacePage. My heart rate started beating at a much faster pace. He didn't...did he? I knew I had a lot of anxiety problems, most of it seeming completely unreasonable, but I think me freaking out was justified in this situation. I went to message him back when I heard the _ding_ of a new message.

 _Lea: Yeah sorry_

 _Lea: I was texting Marluxia_

Oh. Now I feel stupid. I was freaking out for nothing. I waited for him to text back but he didn't. Was he really not going to talk about what I had said about caring about him? Oh well.

 _Isa: Are you feeling any better?_

 _Lea: No_

Well this was getting me nowhere.

 _Isa: I don't know how to help you then._

That might have seen rude. Shit, I shouldn't have said that. But it was the truth. There was nothing more I could say. I waited for him to message back.

 _Lea: Fuck my life_

 _Lea: I might go into the woods behind my house with a knife so nobody can hear me_

This guy was really starting to freak me out. I don't think I've ever dealt with someone so depressed like this. Marluxia was like this but had never talked about killing himself! I had to think of something to say, and quick. I had no way of knowing if he was capable of committing suicide. And if he did do it, I wouldn't know. I waited too long to reply, and Lea messaged back.

 _Lea: if you dont see me at school u kno why_

Fuck! I started rapidly smashing out my answer on the keys. This was a lot scarier than I thought.

 _Isa: Don't say that_

 _Isa: Please don't hurt yourself. You still have people who love and care about you._

 _Isa: Like Marluxia, your family, even me. Nobody wants you to die._

 _Lea: I want me to die tho_

I stared at his response for a few seconds. There was no reasoning with this guy. I could have stopped talking to him. He could be just fine and not kill himself. He could just be all talk.

But something in my heart compelled me to keep talking to him. I had to try and convince him that his life mattered.

 _Isa: Just forget about everything. Try going to sleep early tonight so you can clear your head. I'll see you on the bus tomorrow._

 _Lea: Can't promise you anything_

 _Lea: but I'll try_

 _Isa: Good_

Lea didn't answer me after that. A minute later the green dot signifying that he was online was missing. So he was offline...I just hope he was in a somewhat better mood, having talked to me and Marluxia. I never knew that was how Lea really felt. He was suffering and nobody else knew it. I went to close the FacePage tab. I really didn't feel like staying on. But before I could click the x, I got a message. From Marluxia.

 _Marluxia: Thanks for helping out. He's not in that much of a better mood but thanks_

 _Isa: No problem, Marly_

 _Marluxia: Don't call me that._

I chuckled and closed the tab. I would normally hate helping people. Did Marluxia not have anybody else to help him out with Lea? Why did it have to be me? I sunk back into my enormous quantity of pillows. Oh well. At least I was able to somewhat help somebody out. Even if it was a doofus like Lea who I wasn't fond of at all. I closed my eyes. Stuff like this really gave me a headache.

I knew that come tomorrow, we'd be complete strangers again. A guy like him had too much pride to talk to someone like me in public.

 **.**

 **Did you like this chapter? Yeah, it was probably really depressing to hear how Lea really felt. Next chapter should be out somewhere between tomorrow and the next couple of days. Like I said, I will try to update as often as possible. Thanks for reading, remember to give it a review!**


	3. Three

**Hello all and welcome to another chapter! Took a little longer this time, but it's finally up. Now I have to tell you something before you start reading this chapter. If you leave a review, do not get mad if I don't see or respond to it. There must be some glitch in the site because NO-ONE is able to see their latest reviews for the past three or four days. I don't know when this glitch will be fixed, but until then I probably won't be able to see what you review. It'll tell me how many reviews I get, I just won't be able to read what it says. If you'd LIKE, you can review and then copy it and private message me it, so that way it'll be posted on my story AND I can read it. Sorry for any trouble this may cause. Now that that's out of the way, let's get into this new chapter!**

 ****Edit**** **It looks like reviews are finally up. So don't mind what I said up there ^ . I just hope it stays that way. **Edit****

 **.**

 **Three**

It was the morning of Wednesday, the most pointless day of the week. The sun was just barely making itself known, peaking over the horizon and casting pinkish-orange hues into the sky. It was actually a very beautiful sight. However, in just less than an hour the sun will be unbearably bright and the sky will become that obnoxiously blinding blue. All was silent except for the chirping of birds in the distance and the calm breeze fluttering through the trees in my front yard. The air was more humid than that dry heat from yesterday.

I was sitting on my schoolbag that I had dropped on the ground at the edge of my driveway. If I was any closer to my house, my view of further down the street would have been blocked by trees and I would not have been able to see the school bus around the curb. I had my earbuds in my ears and I was listening to a song by _Linkin Park_.

I yawned and stretched my arms over my head. This morning was like any other. I had to wake up at five o'clock in the morning, brush my teeth, take my shower, get dressed, brush my hair and then eat breakfast (egg whites and yoke with some toast) all while making sure I was outside before five-fifty-five when the bus would normally pass. So as a result of rushing nearly every morning, I was extremely tired and still had that uncomfortable crust in my eyes.

This is why I hated mornings.

I looked at the time on my phone and noticed that it was four minutes after six o'clock. The bus was going to be late again. Two minutes later, and finally I saw the bus turning around a curb down the street. I stood up and slung my schoolbag over my shoulder. _Finally_. I may seem very impatient—that's because I am—but I really hate waiting for that stupid bus to arrive. I just wanted to get this day over with.

The bus screeched to a halt in front of my driveway. The bus driver seemed to be having a hard time getting that door to swing open, but after a few seconds of the bus driver fiddling around with that handle, the door opened and I hopped onto the bus. I went to my usual seat, right in front of Ienzo who was fast asleep, his feet up on the seat and his head on his knees. I didn't understand how that freshman was able to stay soundly asleep every single morning. He was always the first to get on the bus in the morning and the last to get off in the afternoon.

I put my schoolbag on my lap, hugging my arms around it as I rested my head against the window, closing my eyes and attempting to doze off, which was near impossible due to the constant shaking of the window rattling against my head. I turned up the music on my phone so the rattling didn't make too much noise in my ear. Before long, as more people began getting on the bus, I noticed a shadow out of the corner of my eye sit in the seat directly across the aisle from me. Not many people ever sit there.

I looked up and saw that Lea was sitting there, his forehead pressed against the back of the seat in front of him, his eyes staring at the floor. His hair was noticeably messier than usual. His face was dripping as if he had just splashed himself with faucet water. His clothes looked very messy in general, his shirt tucked in the front but not in the back, his belt missing a few loops on his pants, his collar messed up, his shoes untied, mismatched socks, and I could smell from here that he forgot deodorant.

I over-analyze things. I can take one good look at a person and spot everything about that person's appearance in under a minute. I saw the corner of Lea's face twitch so I darted my eyes to the window, making sure that if he opened his eyes and looked around he wouldn't have seen me staring directly at him. Even though I was looking at the window, I could sense him lift his head up to look in my direction. I had amazing peripheral vision.

I felt like I was in one of those cheesy movies where someone is staring at someone else, and the moment he looks away that person ends up staring back. It was ridiculous. If he wanted to talk to me, he should just do it. I'm not good with starting a conversation. I noticed that he was now looking out his window, so I took that as my chance to look his way.

And the minute I did so, he turned towards me. Our eyes locked.

 _Damn it._

"You just going to keep staring?" I asked, trying to break the ice. I might have sounded confident on the outside but every fiber of my being was screaming in panic on the inside. I yanked the earbuds out of my ears and pocketed them with my phone.

"Nah," Lea replied, looking towards the front of the bus. Okay? He looked back to me. His next words were spoken in a hushed tone. I had forgotten that people were trying to sleep on the bus before they had to really wake up for school. "Thanks for talking to me yesterday."

"Don't mention it." And with that, we stopped talking. The last person had gotten on and the bus turned off of our street. We still had several miles left to go. I looked back to Lea, who looked like he wanted to say something, but wasn't quite sure of how to put it. "You okay now?"

"Oh yeah, definitely," Lea answered rather quickly. I knew that was probably a lie for the most part, but I didn't call him out on it. Instead I nodded. "I was just going through some things." He darted his eyes upward, as if he was trying to look into his mind so he could pull out what to say next. "Come sit with me." He patted the empty space next to him. I didn't think Lea would have actually asked me to sit with him. We barely knew each other. Do all sociable people ask random people to sit with them if they're lonely? I for one liked sitting alone. It gave me the space I needed.

"Why do I have to go sit with _you_ ," I said in a sarcastic tone. "Too lazy to come over here instead?" I smirked. My heart was racing though. I never usually talked to anyone, especially with this sarcastic tone, but at the same time I sort of liked it.

"I like window seats."

"So do I," I replied. We stared at each other for a few moments.

"Ugh, whatever," Lea sighed, hopping over the aisle and into my seat before I could even blink. He had left his school bag in his seat. "So why did you help me last night?"

"I don't like seeing people suffer," I told him. "You seemed to be having a rough time last night, and Marluxia had asked me to help you out so I did."

"Oh, yeah, you dated Marluxia last year, didn't you?" His question threw me off a bit, but I nodded in response. "That's cool. Don't worry, I don't judge." Well that was good to know. I didn't really think he was the type of person to judge. Sure, he was athletic and horsed around with his friends a lot and would often find some poor kid to pick on and maybe I've heard him use the term _faggot_ or _fag_ before, but I didn't think he legitimately thought anything bad about people like me. He was even close friends with Marluxia apparently, who's the gayest guy I know.

"How'd you sleep?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Not too great," Lea mumbled under his breath. I almost had to struggle to hear what he had said. "I couldn't really get to sleep so after midnight I snuck out of my window and went into the woods to be alone." I clenched a fist to my side. He was alone in the woods last night? He could have done something majorly stupid.

"You were able to sneak out without anyone finding out?" I asked.

"Well yeah, my mom was in bed and my little sisters were too busy watching Netflix," Lea cracked a smile. "I always get to sneak out. The air feels so good during the night." I could see his muscles tense up. "Every day it becomes harder for me to not kill myself."

"Shut up," I told him, not wanting to hear this. It was one thing having to text someone out of their suicidal thoughts, but to actually hear it all in person was a lot to handle. The word kill came so easily out of his mouth. I almost wanted to strangle him just then, but if he really wanted to die that'd just be doing him a favor. "You need to stop talking about suicide. There are people who love you, you know."

"None of that really matters. I can't get a girlfriend, all of my friends are idiots, my mom always bitches at me, my sisters always piss me off, I suck in most of my classes...tell me, what do I have to look forward to in this world?"

I didn't know how to respond to that. His life did seem like it sucked. But it couldn't have been any worse than my life. At least people noticed him. I was like paint on a wall. Nobody thinks twice about it. It's just _there_. I mean, I've grown accustomed and actually enjoy being left alone now, but Lea's the type of guy who loves the attention, which he obviously has a lot of.

"Don't focus on the bad things," I suggested. "Look at what's good in your life. Having friends like Marluxia and I guess me...and other things..."

"You suck at making me feel better, you know that?"

"I helped last night didn't I."

"Touche."

We laughed at each other's stupidity. Suddenly, I wasn't feeling the urge to gouge Lea's eyes out. The rest of the bus ride was pretty quiet. After the bus stopped in its usual space in the front of the parking lot, we waited for the morning bell to ring to let us off of the bus. It was six-forty-six, and the bell normally rings at six-fifty-five. I looked to Lea, who looked to have dozed off with his head pressed against the back of the seat in front of us.

He was so close to me. Our hips were touching, I could feel his shoe resting against mine, and our shoulders barely grazed one another. I thought I would have hated having a guy like Lea being this close to me, but it wasn't terrible. It's not that I have a crush on him or anything. I don't think I've ever thought of him that way. We rarely ever interacted. But still, I _am_ gay and this was a boy, so I didn't hate the feeling of him being in my personal bubble.

"Lea," I whispered, and I saw his face twitch so I knew he could hear me. "The bell's about to ring." I looked at my phone again and saw that we probably had less than a minute before the bell sounded. Lea opened his eyes, yawned, and sat up straight. "How was your nap?"

"Would've been better if you didn't wake me up," Lea snapped back, but then smiled, getting up from my seat, grabbing his schoolbag from the seat across from me, and he went stand by the door, waiting to get off of the bus. That boy was very impatient. Some people followed his example and started standing up.

I took my chance to get out of my seat, blocking off anybody who was trying to rush to the door right before the bell rang. I had them wait even longer when I took the time to wake Ienzo up, reaching for him and tapping him a few times on the top of his head, running my fingers through his steel-blue hair. "Ienzo, the bell's about to ring." Ienzo snapped awake, completely flipping out, his feet falling to the floor and his hands instantly grabbing the back of my seat.

His eyes were wide open in horror, but he looked up at me, his pale face blushing, and he stammered out, "Thanks." He giggled awkwardly as he grabbed his schoolbag, slinging it over his shoulder.

I turned towards the front of the bus and walked towards the three steps by the door. Lea was on the very bottom step, pressing his forehead against the glass on the door, attempting to have a few seconds more of rest before the school day started. But the minute I had approached Lea, the bell rang. It was that obnoxious chiming sound that pierced my eardrums every time I heard it.

The door swung open and Lea jumped off of the bus. I followed him closely behind. As we made our way to the quad in the back yard, he looked back to me and said, "Thanks for talking to me. It's always boring in the morning."

"No problem, Lea," I said back to him, offering him a weak smile. I hated smiling in the presence of others, but I tried my best to make an exception for someone who I guess was my friend now. "So where are you going?"

"Going toss the football in the quad," he replied. When we got close to the back yard, he looked to me one last time and said, "Isa, right?" I laughed and nodded. Then we went our separate ways.

 **.**

 **You enjoyed this chapter? I enjoyed writing it, as I do with all these chapters. This chapter was going to be longer but I decided this was a good place to cut it off at. The next chapter will be up sometime soon. Remember, remember to drop a review, it really helps a lot! Buh-bye!**


	4. Four

**Sorry for the long delay, but here's the next chapter! I hope you're enjoying reading this. Remember, as I've said this before, this fic will be going at slow pace, because I'm trying to make this as realistic as possible. Each chapter will vary in length. Since each chapter or every two chapters happen within their own day, there's obviously going to be a day where nothing much happens, which will result in a very short chapter. Likewise, there will be a day where literally everything happens, and thus it'll be extremely long. So I've warned you. Don't get mad at me if there's a chapter that's 500 words long, or if there's a chapter that's 8,000 words long. Haha XD Anyway, let's get into this chapter!**

 **.**

 **Four**

Radiant High School. I can go on and on about why I hate this school so much. The walls and doors definitely needed new paint jobs. You didn't even need to look that hard to see the paint slowly but surely chipping away out of existence. Some of the teachers really should not have been hired. Being a teacher does not mean passing out a packet every day and yelling at your students because your love life is a train wreck. Yes, I'm talking about you, Mr. Evans. The water fountains were downright disgusting, and I'm pretty sure nobody has ever taken a sip from one in the entire time that I've been here. Before every major football game day they'd have a mandatory pep rally in the auditorium, where I'd be forced to be around hundreds of screaming teens while having to watch the cheer leaders shake their asses and pompoms on stage as well as having the beat of the drums annihilate my ears.

And all that is just barely scratching he surface of why I hate this school so much.

The main school building itself held the main office, the guidance councilor's office, the nurse's office, and the cafeteria. Going upstairs would lead you to the hallways and the classrooms as well as the computer labs and the library. To the left of the school was the gym and to the right the auditorium. By the side of the auditorium were a few portable classrooms. In the front of the school was the parking lot. In the back was the quad, which held the _Snack Shack_ where you can buy bags of chips or small little candies for a dollar and a bottle of water or Gatorade for a dollar-seventy-five. Also in the quad was the gazebo. Farther in the back behind the quad was the band hall which held the band room (of course) and the choir room. Behind the band hall was yet another parking lot, mainly for students to use.

This year is my fourth and final year of high school. They say these are the best years of your life. I beg to differ. My grades are average. I haven't been involved in any clubs. I've only really had three or four friends to hang out with and I've only dated one guy. And yet, despite not being involved in anything, the last three years of my life somehow sped by in a blur. It doesn't even feel like I'm a senior.

I sat down on the bench in front of the band hall building, the back of my head against the wall and my eyes closed. It was already lunch. My first four periods somehow went by extremely fast. The bell to dismiss us had only rang out two minutes ago, and I managed to slip out of class and out of the building faster than most students. I had always sat in the same spot every single day of every year, and I wasn't going to slow down and allow some random take my spot.

I opened my eyes. People were still exiting the building. The students were each branching off into their own areas. Some came to the band hall. Some to the gazebo. Some to the benches right next to the building. Some got in line in the cafeteria. The food today was Salisbury steak or spicy chicken patty on a bun, with mashed potatoes or some fruit as a side.

The student body swarming the campus was definitely colorful. One thing I didn't really like all that much about attending Radiant High was the color-coded dress code. Freshmen wore yellow shirts, Sophomores wore red, Juniors wore green, and Seniors wore blue. So if you happened to be in a certain grade that is forced to wear a color that you absolutely hate, then you're stuck with it all year. I looked down and tugged at my blue shirt.

I felt somebody sit next to me. I turned to my side and saw Naminé, one of my closest friends. Now, if you knew Naminé, you'd be confused as to why me and her were friends. I was the person who hardly spoke to anybody and who was rarely spoken to. She was the girl who had tons of friends and was pretty confident around others. I remember when we had first met in seventh grade. She was the new girl, who was so shy and had no friends, just like me. That was back when I thought I was straight. She was my first crush.

She looked to me and smiled, but didn't say anything. Instead she just sighed and looked ahead at the cafeteria, looking as if she was contemplating whether or not she should go and get something to eat. She bit her lip, something she always did when she was deep in thought. The blue shirt she wore seemed to make her blue eyes sparkle beautifully. There were a few moments of silence. Finally, she said, "So how was your day?"

"Like any other day," I replied, which pretty much killed the conversation. We both sat in silence for a few minutes. Even though she _was_ my official best friend, it was still sometimes difficult to hold a conversation with her. I could talk to her on the phone or video chat with her for hours on end, and we could go to each other's houses and spend all day with each other, but during school, I always felt the need to stay silent. "Marluxia messaged me yesterday."

"Whoa, really?" That got her attention. She looked at me with wide eyes and a smirk. "What did you two talk about? You're not thinking about going out with him again, are you?"

"No, I'm not." A few seconds of silence went by. "He just told me to help his friend who was really struggling, that's all. Which I did. Kinda helped him." Naminé nodded.

"Hey, guys," a voice said to my left. Ienzo hovered over me, wearing his pale yellow shirt. I waved at him, and he took that as an invitation to sit down on the other side of me. He was a lot taller than me, despite being a fourteen-year-old freshman. His height was all he really had going for him. His voice was still really high pitched. He was autistic but was one of the smartest kids in school. I never really asked him to be my friend or to hang out with me and Naminé, but we're two of the only kids in school who can really tolerate him. He put his feet up on the bench and hugged his knees. "Last hour wore me out. I'm tired."

"Get some more sleep then," Naminé replied.

"I sleep from eight at night until four in the morning," Ienzo said. "Then I sleep on the way here. I think I get enough sleep. But I'm still tired." He closed his eyes and I'm pretty sure he fell asleep in just a few seconds. I tapped him on the shoulder but he didn't respond.

"Well then," Naminé chuckled.

I looked towards the right side of the quad, where a few students were running around like idiots and tossing a football between them. How they could stand running around and playing sports in this smothering heat is beyond me. I would have completely zoned out if not for a single face that stood out among the seven or eight kids out there. Lea stood on one side of the grassy field with his arms stretched before him. Then he took off running backwards, and the football landed in his hands. He smiled and screamed in victory.

I have to admit, it felt nice seeing him happy and having fun. He glanced in my direction. I immediately froze. So much for trying to look away to avoid being spotted staring. He glanced away just as fast, throwing the football in the direction it had come from. The person he had thrown it to caught it with his fingertips but then immediately dropped it. Three of the guys scrambled to catch the ball bouncing away from them. Lea dove towards the bal and his face planted into the ground. A smile was brought to my lips.

"I didn't expect you to go for the football playing type," Naminé said close to my ear.

I jumped, twisting my head in her direction so fast I thought my neck was going to snap. "Excuse me?"

"You're staring at one of the cute boys playing football over there," Naminé replied with a cheeky grin. "I was just saying those generally aren't the ones you go for."

"I was just looking in that direction."

"You mispronounced _staring_."

"Grrr, you're annoying, you know that," I snapped at her, which caused Naminé to stick her tongue out at me.

"That's my job." Naminé stood up, grabbing her schoolbag from the side of her. "I'm going to try to get one of the last plates of lunch. If there _are_ any left. Come with me."

"No, I'm good. I hate lunch lines, you know that."

"Fine," Naminé scowled at me. She grabbed Ienzo by the wrist and pulled him off of the bench. He snapped awake and started freaking out before realizing Naminé was the one who had woken him up. "Good, you're awake. Come with me to lunch." She locked arms with Ienzo and practically dragged him in the direction of the cafeteria. I chuckled in amusement. That girl is crazy. Naminé's sure come a long way.

I looked back in the direction of the group of guys throwing the football around, which seemed to have a few extra people since the last time I was looking at them. With so many people close together it would have been hard to try and point out any regular person, but Lea's hair stood out like blazing flames in the middle of a grassy field.

I questioned why I was even looking at him to begin with. My first guess was that I was still a little worried about him so I wanted to keep a close eye on him. But at this moment I was practically obsessed with watching his every move on that field, so much so that I began freaking myself out. Why did I care so much?

Suddenly, red flames fell to the ground. I stood up suddenly, a gasp escaping my lips before my mind had even registered what had just happened. I dashed forward to the end of the cement to get a better look. Lea was sprawled out on the ground, his arms and legs stretched as far as they could go. I could see his chest moving up and down rapidly, a sign that he was breathing erratically. From the way things looked, one of the kids had gotten a little carried away and tackled Lea to the ground in an attempt to grab the football from him.

The boy that I assumed had been the one to knock Lea over reached a hand out for the redhead to grab. Lea opened his eyes and grabbed the hand eagerly, springing up and onto his feet, brushing dirt off of his clothes like nothing had even happened. He bent over and rubbed his ankle. He must have sprained it or something. I was amazed. Lea seemed alright despite what had just happened. Although he _did_ finish playing football for the day. He picked the ball up in a gym bag that he slung on his shoulder along with his schoolbag. So it was _his_ football that they played with every day.

I sighed, walking back to my spot on the bench and sitting down. I was confused. Why had I gotten so worried over that boy? I had never even really noticed him before today. And now suddenly we were on speaking terms and I was watching him from a distance and I got really worried when it looked like he'd gotten hurt. I didn't understand. I guess I care more about Lea Kasai than I had originally thought.

Great. Maybe what Naminé had said about me liking a football player wasn't too far from the truth.

No! I didn't like Lea like that. I was only concerned about his mental state, that's it. He isn't even my type. Actually, come to think of it, what _was_ my type? The overly feminine type isn't my type, hence the reason why me and Marluxia didn't work out. And I've already established the football-playing jock isn't my type either.

Midway through lunch Naminé and Ienzo returned, each taking a seat beside me like before. Ienzo dug his nose in a huge paperback book and Naminé held a plate of food in her hands.

I looked back towards the field to see if I could spot Lea, but he was nowhere in sight. He and his football friends went to their own respective hangout spots. I looked all over, but I couldn't see where Lea was hanging out at. I sighed, looking at my feet.

"Someone's in _love_ ," Naminé giggled, knocking my shoulder with hers.

"Someone needs to _mind their own business_ ," I replied. I reached my hand over and grabbed a hold of her spicy chicken patty, ripping a piece off for myself and stuffing it in my mouth.

…

After the thirty-minute lunch period was over, fifth hour went by in a flash. It was one of those days the teacher decided to let those who haven't finished the test from yesterday complete it, and since I was able to complete my test on time yesterday, I was able to doze off and take a little nap the entire class period. I'm pretty sure I was out like a light ten minutes into the class period. I had woken up as soon as the bell sounded for sixth.

I walked through the hallway on the way to my sixth period classroom. The halls were always crowded as hell. I wished the halls were a little wider. A few times I was accidentally pushed into a wall. People coming from the opposite direction don't know how to stay on their side of the hall, and they'd stand in front of me until I moved out of _their_ way. To escape the hallway I practically threw myself into my classroom.

It was the same as all the others. Rows of desks facing a dry-erase board with some objective written in big bold letters to tell us what to do as soon as we came in. Not many people were in class yet. There was maybe four or five people besides myself. I looked to the clock on the wall and saw that there was only around forty seconds left until the tardy bell rang. I took my seat. I sat on the first row, sixth desk, so I was the second to last desk all the way near the wall opposite the door.

As I got my binder and folder and notebooks out for the class, the rest of my classmates entered, and as soon as the last person came in, the bell rang. I don't see why people always take all the time in the world to get to class. If you're late the teacher sends you to the office. I looked up from my desk and glanced around the room.

Sitting on the second to last row on the desk closest to the other wall was Lea. His face was dripping with sweat and there were noticeable stains on his shirt around his neck and armpits. His green shirt definitely contrasted with the spikey flames he calls hair. I didn't realize I was staring at him until he darted his eyes towards me and then waved. I waved slowly back to him.

…

I sat with Lea on the bus ride home. He had insisted I go and sit in his seat with him. I wasn't used to sitting that far back in the bus. It was closer to the noisy kids. And the seats got worse and more uncomfortable the farther back they went. Yet here I was, sitting with a guy I never talked to before yesterday, completely out of my comfort zone. He could have easily came sit in my seat like this morning.

We didn't talk all that much on the way home. We engaged in idle chitchat for a few minutes at a time, but after one of us would run out of something to say we would just stay silent for several minutes, not doing anything but looking out the window or looking at the back of the seat in front of us. The heat was sweltering inside of the bus. My body had become uncomfortably itchy. I kept looking to Lea on the side of me by the window, who was already starting to drip with sweat. That's one thing about him I didn't understand. When I got hot, all I did was itch and feel a tiny bit of sweat on my head. Lea, on the other hand, was already sweating rivers.

"You gonna be alright today?" I asked, deciding to break the silence.

Lea took a few seconds to answer. I saw he was biting his lip before he spoke. "I think so. I'll just keep to myself. I don't have anyone to hang out with over there who doesn't drive me insane." I looked out the window, and somehow we were already down our street. The bus was two houses down from Lea's trailer. I really had not been paying attention.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I told him.

"Aight," he replied quickly. I was going to get out of the seat to allow him to get out easily, but he instead stood up and lifted his leg up and over my legs so he could cross over me instead of making me get out of the seat. He almost tripped over my feet trying to get out, nearly stumbling into the seat across the aisle. He chuckled after he caught himself, then made his way down the aisle and out the door as soon as it opened.

I had once thought it'd be bad if I ever became friends with Lea Kasai. But to be honest, I sort of enjoyed his company. Even if we didn't speak once, just sitting next to him was enough. It made me less lonely, if that makes sense. Even though I do prefer to be alone most of the time. Especially on the bus. As my house was coming up I stood up and stepped out of my seat, walking to the door just as the bus stopped by my house. I stepped off of the bus.

Today at my house was going to be really boring. Like every day. Maybe I should try texting people to keep me occupied, like Naminé or Ienzo or Marluxia...or even Lea.

 **.**

 **Did you enjoy this chapter? It took me a long time to write this because I was having trouble trying to word everything and I rewrote it a few times. The next chapter will be out whenever. I'm not going to make promises of having it up before a week from now, so expect it anywhere from tomorrow to even two weeks from now. I try to stay consistent but then I end up not going through with what I've said. ANyways, I'll see you in the next chapter!**


	5. Five

**Sorry for the long wait for this chapter! Took a while to actually think about what to write. Okay, a few things to say before you read this chapter. I've done away with chapter names. They're the most difficult things about writing to me so for now every chapter will just be numbered. Also, I hope you don't mind chapters that only have nothing but random conversations in them. Like I've said before, this story is supposed to be as realistic as possible, and a realistic relationship or friendship involved actual long pointless conversations. This chapter serves to give a tiny bit of backstory and history without the chapter actually revolving around that. Anyway, let's get into this, I've talked for too long.**

 **.**

 **Five**

Talking to Lea on the morning and afternoon bus rides has become a daily routine of mine for the past week. I used to prefer the idea of keeping to myself, listening to music on my phone and falling asleep before we got to school. But lately I've come to the realization that having someone to actually talk to made the ride somewhat bearable. I don't think I've ever had someone to actually talk to on this bus. Ienzo was always passed out way before I even got on, and pretty much everyone else on the bus either didn't know me or didn't like me.

The day was Thursday. A whole day until Friday. Which meant the weekend was almost here. I know it's silly and I seem like a little kid waiting impatiently for the weekend to come, but I always mentally count the days or hours or minutes until that glorious moment when you realize there won't be school for another two days. I'm pretty sure every teenager is like that.

I sat in my usual seat. Actually, it was now both mine and Lea's. Ever since the day Lea started sitting with me on the bus, not a day has gone by that we weren't sitting together. It seemed to change the entire flow of the bus's unofficial seating arrangement. One guy began to sit in the seat Lea would normally sit in, and another began to sit in that guy's seat with his friend, leaving another two seats completely empty for other people to sit in. I had no idea one person changing seats caused a whole chain reaction.

I hadn't even bothered putting in my earphones. I haven't used them since I've been talking to Lea every morning and afternoon. The bus came to a lurching halt in front of Lea's house, and he came strolling up the stairs and onto the bus with his hands in his pockets, his schoolbag slung over his left shoulder, looking as cool and as stupid as ever.

"Yo," he said as he flew into the seat next to me. He dropped his schoolbag to the floor in the middle of the aisle, forcing whoever came on the bus next to have to step over it to avoid tripping. "Mom wouldn't stop bitching at me to take the garbage out. It's my sister's turn today. Fuck." He slammed his hands on the back of the seat in front of us, disturbing whoever was sitting there.

"Whoa, okay, calm down," I said, lightly patting Lea on the shoulder. For someone who always seemed so happy playing football and talking to his other friends, he had a lot of sadness and a lot of anger he wouldn't show anybody else. But for some reason he decided to let his true emotions out when he was around me. "How'd you sleep?"

"Didn't." Okay then. Lea sighed and let out a yawn. "At least you're living with your grandma and you don't have any siblings. You're lucky."

"I have a sister," I told him. "Sidney. She lives with my mom in another city though. My dad lives with his girlfriend. They're letting me live with my grandmother so I can stay down here and continue going to Radiant High."

"Our school sucks," Lea replied.

"Better than the other schools."

"True enough."

"Why did you start talking to me?" I asked Lea. He bit his lip as if thinking of how he was going to answer.

"I dunno," was his plain and simple answer. "I've said it before, but you're not like my other friends. A bunch of idiots and jerks. Then again, I'm also an idiot and a jerk."

"At least your self aware," I replied with a chuckle. That brought a smile to Lea's lips. "I always thought you were a jerk. Someone unapproachable. Someone who'd always hang with all of those idiot jocks. But actually, you're like everybody else. You have problems. You have stuff going on. Your life isn't perfect. You're actually willing to talk to a loser like me about the stuff going on in your life."

"You're not a loser," Lea said, putting his arms behind his head and closing his eyes. "You're just not like most people. That's all right though." He opened his eyes. "Okay, let's change the subject. Why did you break up with Marluxia?" The question took me by surprised. I was almost frozen solid. Why would he care? "When you two dated last year, I'd see you guys around school. You would always sit with him on the gazebo, I'd see you two exchanging notes in between classes, sometimes I'd catch you guys sneaking off to the parking lot to make out. You guys seemed like a pretty good couple. For a couple of gay guys."

"Was that supposed to be an insult?" I asked, and Lea laughed in response. "Well, he asked me out first. I didn't even know he existed. Well, I knew who he was but I never payed attention to him. People were telling him that they had heard that I was gay. I wasn't completely out of the closet. Then Marluxia asked me out and I said yes. We dated for three months. Three great months. But I guess, feelings change. He was too, uh, feminine, I guess. Reminded me too much of a girl. I know that sounds shallow, but everybody has a type, right?"

"Exactly," Lea replied. "Everybody thinks I'm screwed up for turning down a nice girl who happens to have short hair. Sorry but that isn't my thing. So I get why you broke up with him. It kinda destroyed him to be honest. He can be such a drama queen. Ooh, but not as much as Larxene. We date for one day and then she goes and tells all of her friends that I had sex with her and left her. What a bitch."

"Yikes," I said. We continued to have random conversations for the rest of the bus ride. I found out little things about his life. His dad left him. So did the parents of his two sisters. Apparently every guy his mother was with left as soon as she got pregnant. Nobody deserved to go through stuff like that. Now I see why Lea was so depressed all of the time. Not only did he hate his family life already, but his own father and every man his mother had been with since then left. That has to be damaging.

The bus lurched to a halt in the school parking lot. I was tired of those damn lurches. This time my head actually hit the seat in front of me. Lea got a kick out of that. He cracked his knuckles and then his neck and then he stretched his legs out below the seat.

"You know, you should come to my house some time," he said. At first, what he said didn't really register. I waited a few seconds before actually realizing what he had just said. I rarely get invited to a person's house. I've been to Ienzo's house once and that was years ago. I've gone to Naminé's house almost every weekend since I was twelve. But besides that, I've never hung out anywhere with anyone. "Well?"

"Uh..." I said, a little unsure. Going to a new place, a new environment, was always terrifying for me. I've had serious anxiety since I was little, so I've always been this way. Just thinking about going to another person's house sent my heart beat into overdrive. I almost wanted to tell Lea that I didn't want to, but I couldn't do that. Why was it so hard for me to just say yes to offer? So instead I mustered, "I'll have to ask my grandmother. She'd have to drive me." I know it's lazy, but walking on my road was not something I'd enjoy doing, even if his house isn't _that_ far away from mine. "I'll think about it."

"Okay, cool," Lea said with a smile. "Sounds great. It's so boring at my place. All I really do is lay in bed, listen to music or watch Netflix, or go outside and throw the football to myself. Boring. So it'd be fun to have a friend over." He's acting like I actually gave him a definite _yes_. "And you're like, the only friend who isn't a _bad influence._ My mom would like you."

"All adults like me," I said, chuckling with a hint of nervousness that I wasn't sure if Lea could pick up. I had some serious thinking to do. "But yeah, I'll let my grandmother know." Maybe Lea would just forget about the whole crazy idea. What would we even do at his house? We don't even have the same interests. Saying yes was impossible but turning him down was also impossible.

I checked the time on my phone. Two minutes left until the bell rang. I looked over the back of my seat to find Ienzo passed out, his head laying on his schoolbag and his body curled up into a ball. How he managed to stay like that without waking up on this bus was beyond me.

"Hey Ienzo," I called down to him. I saw his eyes twitch but they remained closed. I got on my knees and reached over the seat and patted his face a few times, and he stirred awake, mumbling something under his breath. "Hey Enzo. Time to wake up."

"Don't call me that," he sighed, sitting up and wiping the sleep from his eyes. "What time is it?"

"Time to wake up," I repeated, getting back into a comfortable sitting position. Lea had watched me waking up Ienzo but didn't say anything. Instead he stood up and walked to the bus's door in anticipation for the morning bell to ring. "Impatient," I yelled at him, standing up as well and joining him by the door.

"Have to be the first one out the door," Lea told me. "Getting stuck in line sucks."

"Right," I replied. The rest of the people on the bus followed our example and started gathering their bags and standing up as well, falling into line behind us before the bell rang. When it did ring, Lea sprung out of the bus and continued running towards the quad, not even waiting for me to catch up. I laughed as he disappeared around the corner of the building. Ienzo walked up to the side of me.

"When'd you become friends with Lea?" Ienzo asked, and the two of us continued walking towards the band hall.

"You're just noticing?" was my response.

"You're always talking to him," Ienzo said. "I thought Naminé and I were your friends."

"I can have multiple friends."

"Well, yeah, but...why Lea?" Ienzo asked. "He's all cool and stuff."

"Believe me, Lea is not _that_ cool," I said, and Ienzo laughed. We reached the benches at the band hall and sat down. "And he'll never be able to replace you as my friend, kiddo." I ruffled his hair which caused him to smile and blush a bright crimson. Ienzo dug in his school bag and took out a huge book that was way above a ninth grade level, and he began to read.

I glanced at the quad and noticed a group of guys walking onto the grass. One of them was Lea. Playing football with those guys was one routine he never has and never will break. He took the football out of his schoolbag, tossed the bag aside, and threw the ball to the nearest guy.

I took my eyes off of him and looked towards the sky. The sun was barely peaking over the horizon, and the sky was a mix of dark and light hues of blue. You could still see the faded image of the nearly full moon high above the other side of the sky. I loved how at one moment during the day there's a point where you could see both the sun and the moon at the exact same time. It was really beautiful. I don't think anybody ever notices the little things like that. The things that actually make this world beautiful.

 **.**

 **Enjoyed the chapter? I enjoyed writing this one. Well, when I actually knew what to write about. Also, I have a question to ask. I know not many people are reading this now, but I'll still ask a small little question. I know this story was supposed to be all about Lea and Isa and their friendship/relationship, but how would you feel if I added different things to story? As in, small little side story arcs, more high school drama NOT revolving around Lea and Isa, things like that. I was asking because there are some ideas I have for my characters in here such as Ienzo and Namine and Marluxia, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to add that to this story or to make an entirely different story for that. Leave your thoughts in a review. I had figured, since this is high school and all, a lot of stuff can happen. Thanks for reading xoxo**


	6. Six

**Welcome to the longest chapter so far! I hope you enjoy reading this one. So I've decided what direction to take this story in the future. The main focus will still be and always be the Lea and Isa storyline, but I will probably add other storylines as well with other characters to make it more of a realistic high school setting. It will all be through the eyes of Isa though, because changing the point of view throughout the story will defeat the purpose of having Isa as the main character. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter! Let's get into it!**

 **Six**

"Is Lea a close friend of yours?" The questions kept coming. I had waited until the morning of Friday to tell my Grandma Lydia about the offer to hang out at Lea's house. "I've never heard you talk about him." My grandmother was the sweetest lady in the world. She was a few inches shorter than me and had curly dark hair and was somewhere in her early sixties. I don't often tell her about my personal life. As far as she knows, Naminé is the only friend I've ever had.

"Lea's cool," I told her, slinging my schoolbag over my shoulder and sliding a comb through my damp hair. "I met him a little while ago. So, can I go?" Grandma Lydia thought for a moment. "Please?" I wasn't really that enthusiastic to go, but I couldn't make it seem like I _didn't_ want to go. I had to be believable.

"I guess so," she said. "What time are you planning on going over? Are you going to be eating dinner there? Do I have to bring you?"

"Not sure. Not sure. And yes."

"Alright," was her response. "I'll bring you after school. You did just turn eighteen. I don't even see why you ask me."

"Because I know you'd still be unsure if I should go or not," I replied. "But I'll be alright. Lea's nice."

"Lea isn't like that pink haired boy, is he?" The question caught me so off-guard I almost stumbled in place. "That kid was a little..." She trailed off as she did a weird back-and-forth motion with her hand.

"No, Lea's not like Marluxia," I told her. I tried not to use an overly defensive tone, but I couldn't help it. She may have been the sweetest person in the world, but she was always wary around Marluxia and new he was gay without either of us saying anything. Then again, everyone knew Marluxia was gay without him even coming out. She was a religious woman and gay people made her feel uncomfortable. I'm sure she might have had some idea that I was gay when I was little, but she never let on that she knew, and I preferred it that way.

"Well, you're going to be late," Grandma Lydia said as she embraced me in a hug and practically pushed me out the door. I heard the door click behind me, and I walked down the steps and towards the porch. I looked behind me and saw my grandmother watching me from the window to make sure I made it on the bus okay. She might have seemed too over-protective but I actually felt really good knowing she cared enough to stay looking out the window until I was gone. Most parents or guardians couldn't care less.

The bus arrived a few minutes earlier than usual, but I wasn't complaining. I stepped onto the bus and sat down in my usual seat, waiting for the bus to pick up the few people in between my house and Lea's. When he came onto the bus he looked pissed off, and practically slammed his ass into the seat.

"Do I have to ask?"

"She keeps putting all these chores on me that my sisters are supposed to do," he growled. "Wash the dishes, take out the trash, clean the bathroom. Me, my sisters, my mom, we've always alternated chores so it was no big deal but now it seems like every chore is my chore. My sisters always have some excuse, like going to the library or doing an after-school activity. Well, if they have things going on, just wait until they get home then have them do the chores. Shit. Fuck."

"Language."

"Fuck off."

We stayed in silence for a full ten seconds before we both started laughing hysterically. I hated when Lea got angry, but at least he was still able to laugh. It made me really happy seeing him laugh.

"I told my grandmother," I said, to which Lea smiled at. "She says...she says I can go." I was almost tempted to say that she told me I couldn't go, then I would tell her that Lea changed his mind. It could have worked. I didn't have to go to his house if I didn't want to. But truthfully, I was starting to want to go to his house. Naminé lives on the other side of town and therefore my grandmother sometimes doesn't want to bring me all the way to her house. Going to Lea's house would give me something to do instead of being alone and bored this weekend.

"That's great!" Lea shouted, and the person in front of whipped his head around and glared at us in annoyance. "One thing though...I forgot to tell my mom." Of course. "I can tell her now...if you let me borrow your phone, I can text her."

"You don't have a phone?"

"Mom won't let me have one," Lea replied. "Doesn't trust me with one. Can't really blame her but come on, I need a phone."

I put my hand in my pocket and clutched it in my fingers. I didn't want him to get his hands on my phone. It's not that I didn't trust him, I just hated having people touch my phone. I don't even have much to hide. Except for a terrible taste in music. But I did end up taking my phone out of my pocket and holding it out for him. "I don't really let people use my phone."

"Can I please use it?"

"Uh..."

" _Pleeeeeease?_ "

"Fine," I handed him the phone and he took it greedily in his hands, turning the phone on and swiping the screen.

"Really. No password?"

"Like I said I don't let people use my phone."

I saw Lea access my FacePage Messenger app, not even bothering to log me out. He typed in what I guess was his mother's name, and soon he was in an empty chat box. I leaned closer to him to look at what he was texting.

 _Isa: Hey mom this is Lea_

 _Kristi: Hey_

 _Kristi: Did you forget something at the house?_

 _Kristi: And how do I know that this is really Lea texting me?_

 _Isa: I forgot to flush the toilet this morning._

 _Kristi: Alright, you're the real deal. What did you want?_

 _Isa: My friend wanted to know if he could come over for a little while after school_

"Whoa, hold up," I snapped, grabbing Lea by the forearm. "If you're going to ask your mom if I can come over, tell her it was your idea, not mine." I really hated when people did that to me. It's not like it was my idea. Lea was the one wondering if I could go over. I just said yes. Don't bring me into this.

Lea ignored me and continued texting.

 _Kristi: I don't know_

 _Kristi: Do you have any more chores to do after school today?_

 _Isa: I can wash the dishes right after school. So can he come or not_

 _Kristi: Yea he can but those dishes better be clean by the time I get home. And don't forget to watch the road for your sisters._

 _Isa: Thnx!_

Lea handed the phone back to me. I closed out of the chat, turned my phone screen off, and shoved it back in my pocket. So that was done. Looks like I was in fact going to Lea's house today. I could feel my heart throbbing in my chest. All of a sudden I really didn't feel like going to his place. What if I didn't like his family? What if I was uncomfortable the whole time? My mind was spinning with thousands of questions.

"What would we even do at your place?" I asked him. I needed to at least know that.

Lea thought for a moment and then responded, "Throw the football?" Oh. So fun. "Or we could play cards. Listen to music. Watch some YouTube on my TV. I got a nice TV, by the way."

"How nice," I said with as much sarcasm as I could throw into those two words.

When the bus pulled into the school's parking lot, I noticed that we had arrived several minutes earlier than we were supposed to. Which meant we would now have to wait eleven agonizing minutes to get off of the bus. Looking out the window told me that only two out of the thirteen other buses had arrived. The bus driver stood up and opened the door and stepped off of it, apparently going to the bathroom. The moment she was gone, the bus started to get louder and louder with every second that passed.

"Here we go," I grumbled to myself, hitting my head on the window to the left of me. I was tempted to pull out my phone and plug in my earphones, but I didn't want to zone Lea out. That would have been rude. The idiots on the back of the bus started to throw pencils at each other, which soon escalated to throwing them across the bus. Soon the middle section and the tail section of the bus were throwing random items at each other. "The people at this school are so damn childish."

"No doubt about that," Lea replied.

Ienzo must have woken up from the racket because he was rising from his uncomfortable laying position. "Too much noise," he yawned, stretching as he sat up straight. Lea and I turned around to look at the newly awakened Ienzo. A pencil came soaring from the back of the bus straight in our direction. I flinched, immediately thinking it was going to hit me. Instead, the back of Ienzo's head took the blow. Ienzo's head bobbed forward, and he felt the back of his head. He wasn't too hurt by it. He grabbed the pencil that had fallen behind his back, raised it into the air, and looked towards the back of the bus. "Who threw this?"

"Shut up, fag!" came the insult flying from Demyx in the very back seat.

Lea snapped, grabbing the pencil swiftly from Ienzo's hands and hurtling it as fast as he could like a javelin. With extreme accuracy the back end of the pencil slammed Demyx between the eyes. I was stunned. Ienzo was confused. Demyx was completely taken aback.

"Fucking immature," Lea growled, turning around and crossing his arms.

"Nice throw," I said, almost at a loss for words. I looked back to Demyx who was rubbing the spot between his eyes and above his nose. Lea stayed tense, his eyes trained on the back of the seat in front of him. His teeth were pressed together. "It's alright. Demyx is just an idiot." I didn't see why what Demyx said affected Lea this much. The insult wasn't even directed at him. And he hardly seemed like the type of person who hated when someone was being insulted that wasn't himself.

"People like him who put down younger kids like Ienzo," Lea said, clutching a fist at his side. "I hate guys like that." No offense, Lea, but I had always thought you were a guy like that.

"Why did that boy call me 'fag'?" Ienzo asked innocently.

I looked at him and said, "He's just a bully who has nothing better to do with his time. Don't let him get you down."

"Okay," Ienzo said. That was all I had to say to get Ienzo to not be concerned. He was often insulted and belittled by a vast number of students, and he had no idea why that was. He never complained about it or asked why. It's just been a part of his life for the longest time, and that makes me very upset and angry.

The bus driver came back on the bus, and almost instantly every mouth was shut. Not a sound was to be heard except for the bus driver taking her seat.

It wasn't long before the bell sounded. Lea hadn't realized that much time had passed. He threw himself out of the seat and practically jumped out of the bus. That kid will never change. By the time I had gotten off of the bus myself, Lea was already rounding the corner of the building and disappearing from view.

I waited at the side of the bus for Ienzo to get off, and the two of us continued walking towards the back of the school. I looked back towards the bus to see Demyx staring Ienzo and I down as if we had done something to offend him. He was one of the stoners of the school, always sneaking off to the student parking lot to light himself a cigarette.

Ienzo and I reached the back benches. Ienzo as always took out his large book and began reading. I saw Naminé walking towards us from around the corner of the band hall, coming straight from the student parking lot. When she walked, it looked like she was walking with a purpose. Confidence seemed to pour out of her with every step. To anyone else, she was this perfect girl. To me, she was my best friend of all time. Sure, she had some faults and her anxiety sometimes made her a complete mess, but she had a good way of masking that from everyone.

Naminé sat down beside me and said, "So Lea, you wanna come over to my house today? We can have a _Pirates of the Caribbean_ movie marathon. Or maybe we can watch an entire season of _Supernatural_. Or, or, or we can play some _Super Smash Bros._ "

"Um..." I didn't know how to answer her. What was a good way to let her down easy and let her know that I was going to be hanging out with a _different_ friend? Surely she would understand. She looked at me as if she were staring right into my soul. Her lips twisted in confusion. "I'm going to be going somewhere today. Sorry."

"Ooh, where?" she asked. It seemed like she was understanding of the fact that I couldn't hang out with her today. But now I was tasked with something more difficult—letting her know exactly _where_ is it that I will be today.

"A friend's house," I told her. _Please don't ask any questions..._

"Oh really?" she asked. "Who? Who're going to see?"

I racked my brain, thinking of any possible thing I could tell her. I know she's my best friend and I was overreacting, but I did not want to let her know who I was going to hang out with. Why was I so embarrassed? I felt my cheeks burning and my chest was in a little bit of pain. I had to tell her something. I couldn't keep secrets from her. Maybe she wouldn't judge me.

"L-Lea," I stuttered out. Naminé looked at me with no reaction as if she didn't hear me correctly. "Lea Kasai. He invited me over to his house today."

"Oh," she said, looking away from me and staring ahead at the school building. Was that it? _Oh_? "Lea Kasai." She let the name roll off of her tongue. Then she looked to the field where they were throwing the football. "Lea Kasai. _Football player_." She gazed at each of the players until her eyes fell upon the spikey red-head. "Lea Kasai, football player...as in the type you claim to not be into?" Her lips curved into a smile. "I thought you said you didn't like the football-playing type." She giggled. She freaking _giggled_.

"I-I don't!" I snapped at her.

"Uh-huh, that's why you've been staring at the field at all of those hot and sweaty football players. And you're going to one of their houses! Admit it, you totally like him!"

"I do not!" I yelled at her childishly. "I can go to a boy's house without being in love with him."

"No, Isa, _you_ can't," she chuckled. "Be sure to tell me all the dirty details on Monday."

"Shut up!" I said, pushing her arm. "We just became friends, that's all. Nothing more, nothing less. I do not fall for guys like that."

"Guys like what?" Naminé asked. "Hot? Sweaty? Sexy? Lea Kasai..."

I wrapped my fingers around her throat and pretended to strangle her. "Enough, enough!" Naminé started laughing loudly. I couldn't help but laugh as well. She sure knew how to drive me insane, that's for sure. I slumped my shoulders and breathed hard. Naminé was still laughing. "I don't like him, okay," I said in between breaths.

"That's right," she replied, "you _love_ him."

"Saw that coming."

"Yep."

The two of us sat in silence for the rest of the morning recess period. We had completely exhausted ourselves with our friendly arguing. When the bell rang to go to homeroom, Naminé and I sat up in unison.

"Ienzo, class time, buddy," Naminé said, but Ienzo didn't look up from his book. "Enzo!"

"Don't call me that," Ienzo grumbled, shutting his book and stuffing it into his bag without looking up at us. As he slung his bag over his shoulder, he began walking off in the direction of his first class. "Bye guys."

As Naminé and I were ready to part ways, she pressed her hands on my shoulders. "If you say he's just a friend, then I believe you. But don't even think about keeping a relationship between the two of you secret from me."

"Got it," I replied, walking towards the school as Naminé headed for one of the portable classrooms. Why was that girl always so insistent that every guy I talked to was a guy I liked?

Sure, I thought a majority of the guys at school were cute but that doesn't mean anything. I'd never pursue anything because a majority of the guys are idiots. And straight. The only three openly gay guys I knew at school were Marluxia, and two others who weren't even appealing to me. I knew for a fact that Lea wasn't gay. He's dated several girls in the past few years. Even if he was gay, I don't think I'd pursue a relationship with him. Would I? Was I actually considering...? No. I don't like him that way. We're just friends. Just friends.

I had to keep telling myself that. Catching feelings for a straight boy was the worst possible thing I could ever do.

…

The sun beat down hard today. A minute after I exited the building for lunch period, I could already feel the sweat forming above my brows. I wiped away the sweat as I made my way to my usual area. Naminé was sitting down on the bench with a lunchbox in her lap. Her fingers worked to unzip the top pouch and she ripped out a sandwich, eagerly sinking her teeth into the bread. Before I reached Naminé, I stopped in place.

Marluxia stood in front of her, talking to her about something I was too far away to hear. As I got closer, Marluxia bent down and wrapped his arms around Naminé before turning around to walk off. Soon enough Marluxia and I were face-to-face. "Hi," he said.

"Hey," I replied. Well this wasn't awkward at all. "What were you two talking about?"

"Doesn't concern you," was his short answer.

"Mhm." I really did not feel like talking to Marluxia anymore. We talked occasionally and could even talk for hours, but lately I hadn't been in the mood for that. I went to walk passed Marluxia, but he held an arm out to stop me. "Yes?"

"You talk to Lea a lot, right?" he asked. I nodded in response. "I only message him, but every time I do he seems to be mad or depressed about something. Does he ever seem that way at school? I don't see him much."

"We only talk on the bus," I replied. "He gets on the bus pretty pissed off, mostly about his mom or his sisters. But that's it. I don't really message him much."

"Oh," Marluxia said. "Okay."

"I'm making sure he doesn't get too depressed," I told him, and Marluxia smiled as if to say _thank you_. "Today after school we'll be hanging out at his place."

"Oh really?" Marluxia said, looking pretty surprised. "Didn't you two just become friends?"

"Yeah. So?"

"Nothing." I hated that answer. Especially from Marluxia. Because any time he says _nothing_ he always has something he wants to say. Marluxia noticed my look of doubt and said, "Nothing! It's just, aren't I the reason you two became friends in the first place?" He had a point there. "I didn't expect you two to become so close to the point of hanging out outside of school."

"We're not that close. We're just...somewhat good friends."

"Mhm." With that, Marluxia walked off in a random direction.

I took a seat next to Naminé who had just finished stuffing her face. We sat in silence.

…

I'm pretty sure I was asleep. You know that feeling when you're asleep but you are still somewhat aware of everything going on in your surroundings, but you can't move or react to anything because you're still half-way into your subconscious? That's what I was going through. I knew I was in my fifth hour class. I couldn't tell if it had barely begun or if it was almost over. I could hear the students sitting around me whispering to one another as well as the teacher attempting to start a new lesson. But I couldn't seem to shake myself awake. My eyes were closed. My head was spinning. My cheek was planted on the cold hard surface of the desk with one arm spread across the table and the other hanging inches above the ground.

I decided to take advantage of my semi-subconscious state by fantasizing random scenarios in my head. I pictured myself at Naminé's house watching Netflix while trying to zone out her younger brother who was making noise in the room next door. I imagined me and Ienzo sitting in the same seat on our old middle school bus, exchanging Pokémon cards. I was remembering various moments in my life that made me happy. But suddenly, the reality inside of my mind shifted. I was no longer sitting on the bus next to Ienzo. I was now laying on a somewhat uncomfortable mattress in a dimly lit bedroom.

I felt my arms being pressed down at my sides. A person had himself perched right on top of me. My eyes focused on the man right above me. It was Marluxia. He leaned his head in and kissed me, our lips locking and his tongue sliding into my mouth. It caught me completely off-guard. But I couldn't stop it. I was aware that all of this was a dream. But still, I couldn't control any of it.

The two of us broke apart for a few seconds before both leaning towards one another and locking lips again. I never particularly liked kissing Marluxia in real life. Maybe it was because he reminded me too much of a girl that I was somewhat turned off by him. I was such a terrible person to Marluxia. I hated how I treated him. How I thought of other guys when he and I were being intimate. Knowing how selfish I was and how badly I treated him made me sick to my stomach.

But still, there was no stopping our intimacy in this wacky dream I was having. I was grossed out, but at the same time, I was into it. I hadn't kissed anybody's lips since last year. It felt good to make out with someone, even if it was in a dream. I smirked at Marluxia, and he returned it with a devilish grin on his face.

I pushed myself up, taking him by his shoulders and rolling over to where I was now on top of him. When I looked into his eyes, his entire appearance changed. My entire body shook, a gasp escaping my lips. I was on top of Lea. His bright eyes stared into mine. What was happening? Why was I dreaming about...?

I didn't even have time to process anything else, besides the sensation of falling. It felt as if I was being yanked out of my body. Out of my dream. Suddenly light blinded my eyes, and it took a few moments for my vision to adjust. Noise was all around me. People I didn't know were entering the class room. Was it already sixth period? Was I asleep for that long?

My head felt heavy as I lifted it off of the desk. My right arm that was hanging off of the desk had fallen asleep and my left foot had that pins-and-needles feeling as well. I looked down at the desk to see a small puddle of drool where my face had been. I wiped my right cheek with my left hand, smearing drool. I slowly stood up, wiping up the drool on the desk with my shirt. I didn't care. Just being here in this classroom as an entirely different class from my own was entering was making me extremely embarrassed.

I scurried out of the classroom while holding my schoolbag by a single strap. I dashed towards my sixth period class room as the hallways began to empty.

The second I was right outside the doorway to my next class, the tardy bell sounded. Thankfully my sixth period teacher gave exceptions to people who were less than ten seconds late to his class. He let me walk into the class but still glared at me with judging eyes. I ignored him and sat down in my seat.

I can't believe I almost missed class because of a stupid dream. I didn't even understand what that dream was about. It started off normal. I was in control. I was imagining the good times I've had over the years with Naminé and Ienzo. Then things went out of my control when Marluxia appeared. But that wasn't too odd. What was odd was the fact that Lea made a guest appearance. Was I completely obsessing over him now that he has invited me over to his place? I didn't understand.

I shouldn't be looking too much into this. It's not like I haven't had questionable dreams about other people before. Before I ever figured out I was gay I had a dream where Naminé and I were making out. Not sure why. I've had dreams about pretty much every guy I've ever silently crushed on in the past four years. This wasn't even the first time I've dreamt about Marluxia. So should I really be worried that I had a dream about Lea? I mean, I didn't kiss him or anything. I just sort of awkwardly looked down into his eyes as I was laying on top of him. That shouldn't mean anything. Right?

My mind was racing. I didn't know where my head was at. I looked across the room where Lea sat. Luckily he didn't look back.

…

There was an awkward silence between Lea and I on the bus ride home. I didn't initiate conversation, and neither did Lea. All he did was sit next to me while staring over my shoulder and out the window. I was glad for the silence. It gave me the time to think. Not that it actually helped. The two of us sat in the front of the bus this time.

"So what time will you be coming over?" Lea asked. I thought I felt myself physically jump but apparently Lea didn't notice. I chose not to look at Lea. I just continued to look at the back of the seat in front of us.

"Uh, I'm not sure," was my honest reply. I finally looked at Lea. He was looking at me with concerned eyes. He must have noticed the weird way I was acting all of a sudden. I had to kick all of those thoughts out of my head. I did _not_ like Lea in any way other than as a friend. I might have even considered him as a _best friend_ at this point. But nothing more. "I could tell my grandma to bring me at exactly four o'clock? It'll give me time to eat and get ready before going over to your house." I felt my pulse by pressing my thumb to my wrist. I was gradually calming down. That was good. Talking to Lea as a friend and _only_ a friend helped.

"That's cool," Lea said. "I could also wash the dishes in that time. So I'm not doing that while you're over."

"Great." There was more silence. The bus pulled onto our street. As more and more people were getting off of the bus, and we were getting closer and closer to Lea's house, my heart rate was finally returning to normal. It was only a dream. The dream had me pretty scared and confused. But now I knew for sure. Lea and I were only friends. The thought of us staying friends comforted me.

The bus stopped right in front of Lea's driveway. Lea stood up, slung his schoolbag over his shoulder, and said, "See ya later." In a few seconds he was off of the bus and walking down his driveway.

As the bus began taking off again, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Demyx was now walking up the aisle until he stopped right before the steps. He glared at me. I really did not like that boy. He always acted so big and bad like the stereotypical bully. But nobody, not even the _cool kids_ , liked him. He was as much of a loser as I was. His eyes shifted from me to the seat behind me, where Ienzo sat.

I looked back at Ienzo who hadn't looked up from his book. I turned my gaze back to Demyx who was now sticking the middle finger towards Ienzo before he stepped off of the bus at his own house. I looked out the window to see him pulling a cigarette and a lighter out of each of his jacket pockets as he made his way down his driveway. Before the bus pulled away, he had lit the cigarette and started smoking it. Did I mention I didn't like that guy at all?

After a couple more stops the bus halted in front of my driveway. I took my time getting my schoolbag over my shoulder and getting out of the seat. I bid farewell to the driver and slowly stepped off of the bus. I was really exhausted.

I walked towards my house, thinking about how the rest of this day was going to go. Would I even have fun at Lea's place? I couldn't back out now. Despite that anxious pit in my stomach, I believed I was going to be alright. At least, I had hoped I was going to be alright.

 **.**

 **Did you like this chapter? I really enjoyed writing it. Especially that dream sequence. It's always fun writing a person's dream. So I tried giving a small part to every main character in this one chapter, that being Isa and Lea (of course), Ienzo, Naminé, Marluxia, and even Demyx. Also, I do hope you don't mind if some of the characters are out-of-character compared to their game counterparts. That's bound to happen in an AU fic. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Leave your thoughts in a review! And I'll see you in the next one.**


	7. Seven

**Sorry for the long wait on this chapter! I was going to take a small little break but then I ended up being separated from my laptop from an entire weekend AND Halloween day, and after that I just took a while getting back into the groove of writing these chapters. Sorry about that XD Oh but something cool and interesting to share, from the Saturday before Halloween till the day after Halloween night, I slept at the house of the person I based Naminé off of. She and her grandma let me stay there for a few days. It was nice. Anyway, I've gotten off-topic. Let's get into this chapter!**

 ***EDIT* Ohhhhkay so I had to re-upload this chapter after having it up for 15 minutes because I had accidentally put MY ACTUAL NAME in it! I got so scared when I was reading through it. It's all good now though.**

 **.**

 **Seven**

Lea's home was a dirty white trailer with a rusty tin roof and windows that were stained and cracked. Two vehicles sat at the very back edge of his driveway, one of them a light blue van and the other a rusty red truck. The grass on either side of his driveway was uneven, long on the left and short on the right.

The house to the left of Lea's was on top of a small hill, and there was a small little wooden fence not even a foot tall jutting out of the ground to separate Lea's driveway and the entire field in between and in front of the house next to it. The neighbor must have not wanted Lea's family to go beyond that fence. I don't see how anybody can be kept out of their yard with a foot-tall fence, but it sure kept the Kasais from chopping down the forest they call a yard.

The house on the right side was a nice little house with clean-cut grass and a gazebo in the center of the yard. They had a few small Paopu trees planted in a beautifully symmetrical garden. Flowers of all colors and sizes were growing throughout the yard.

Looking at both of the yards on either side of Lea's driveway, I somewhat felt bad for his family. They didn't even have a yard of their own. The neighbors on the left kept their entire yard "boarded" up, and the neighbors on the right had their entire yard decorated to their liking. Lea and his family had a driveway. Just a driveway. Granted, it was a pretty wide driveway, but still.

I stood at the end of Lea's driveway. I had to beg my Grandma Lydia not to drive all the way down. That would have given me such anxiety. So instead I had her drive only a few feet into the driveway so I could get out the door, tell her goodbye, and then walk the rest of the way. I looked back to see my grandmother looking intently at me. She wasn't going to leave the driveway until she saw someone open the front door for me. I wanted to tell her something, but I didn't want to be rude. I swallowed my anxiety and just walked away from her silver P.T. Cruiser, not wanting to waste a second more standing in this blistering heat.

It was nine minutes after four o'clock in the afternoon. My stomach was full from the plate of fried fish Grandma Lydia had cooked for us. It really didn't take much to fill my stomach. A plate of fish and a glass and a half of Sprite did the trick. I was wearing a light blue t-shirt and a pair of blue jean shorts, my usual boring attire. I didn't feel the need to dress up. I did put some deodorant under my arms and brushed my teeth beforehand, but besides slipping into these comfortable clothes, that was all the preparing I had to do. My cell phone was tucked away safely in my pocket.

I wiped the sweat off of my forehead as I climbed up the few steps leading up to the porch at the top. On the porch were two benches. Just ahead of me was the front door to the trailer. My heart was pounding rapidly against my chest. I could feel my fingers shaking. I had to grab onto my phone inside of my pocket, as if that would somehow make me feel safer. I looked over my shoulder at the vehicle that had still not left the driveway.

 _Damn it Lydia._

I raised a fist in preparation to knock on the door. My heart nearly leapt into my throat. I don't think I've ever had to knock on a door before in my life.

 _Come on Isa, just do it._

I looked back to my grandmother who was looking at me with worried eyes. I couldn't keep her waiting in the driveway. I had to get the courage to knock. Before I could talk myself out of it my knuckles lightly tapped on the dull white door three times. I didn't think that was loud enough for anybody inside to hear. I was debating whether or not I should knock again or just turn away and go back home.

The door knob jiggled. I froze in place. The door opened half-way. Standing there was woman in her early forties. She was a big woman; not obese but not in any way skinny. Her curly dark red hair fell to just below her shoulders. I assumed that this woman was Lea's mother. She didn't look like the devil Lea described her as. In fact, her bright green eyes were filled with kindness. She smiled at me and said, "Hey there, you're Isa, right?" I nodded. She looked me up and down, examining every inch of me as if she were trying to tell what kind of person I was just from how I looked.

"Yes ma'am," I told her. I could feel my heart rate slow tremendously. I was great with adults, more than I was with people my own age. I think that was because I had a stronger mentality than most of the teenagers of this generation. I gently pressed two of my fingers on my neck, studying how with every passing millisecond my heart beat slowed.

"Lea hasn't said much about you," Lea's mother said, holding a hand out. I eagerly took her hand in mine. "I'm Lea's mom, obviously. You can call me Kristi. Lea's in his room. Be quiet coming inside, his grandpa's asleep." Lea had never told me his grandfather was living with his family. I wonder why that was? Kristi moved away from the entrance, quietly saying, "Come inside, make yourself at home."

I followed her lead into the trailer. Cold air hit my face. The sweat on my forehead and on my neck and arms began to cool and disappear due to the air-conditioning. The place definitely looked larger on the inside than it seemed on the outside. As Kristi closed the door behind me, I began walking into the living room.

There was a flat screen television on a table against the wall. Facing the TV was a long couch. To the left of the couch was a smaller couch and to the right, a recliner. I noticed the air-conditioner by the window to the side of the TV. The temperature was set to 67, which was a pretty cold temperature but I sure wasn't complaining. I noticed a socked foot hanging off of one side of the couch in front of me. Walking passed it and towards the kitchen, I was able to see who was laying on it.

It was a man in his mid-sixties. He was fast asleep. The top of his head was bald, but towards the back and on either side was a mix of white and gray hair. He had a small beard that was dark red but was fading to white. A small pair of spectacles hung off of his nose. I could hear him snoring.

I looked to the right of the living room to a small hallway leading to what looked to be a bathroom on the right and a bedroom at the very end of the hall. To the left of the living room was the kitchen. A stove, the sink, and the refrigerator were lined up on one wall, and on the adjacent wall on the left was a counter, with shelves above and below. In the center of the kitchen was a table covered in a fiery red cloth with an orange swirled pattern.

Kristi caught up to me and pointed towards a small hallway passed the kitchen. "That's Lea's room." I assumed she meant the bedroom with the door wide open. "Don't worry, he's already finished his chores for now so you don't have to worry about waiting for him. I just got home myself. Now I have to go outside and wait for the last kid to get home." Kristi left me and walked to the front door.

Oh yeah, now I remembered. While Lea and I leave our high school at 2:15, elementary schools let out at 3:30 and middle schools at 4:00. The middle child should have been getting home soon.

I walked down the small hallway that wasn't even really a hallway. To my left was a door partway open which lead to another bathroom. On the side of it was another door which must have been his sisters' bedroom due to the numerous drawings all over the wooden door as well as the sheet of paper with two names written on it in orange and purple markers: Lenora and Leann. To my right was a door that was closed, but judging by the sounds coming from inside, there must have been a washing machine in there.

I took a few steps forward until I was staring into the room that was wide open. _Lea's room_. The carpet was a dull brown that looked to be covered in dust and dirt. I stepped into the room and looked around in wonder. It was definitely nothing like my room. My room was neat and organized with a well-made bed. This room was...the opposite.

The walls were plastered with an assortment of posters of band members and football players. The paint on the walls was old and peeling off. There was a large box-shaped TV in the corner of the room, and surrounding it were various gaming systems such as the Play Station III and an X-Box One and a Gamecube. I didn't think Lea was much of a gamer. There were articles of clothing strewn about his floor, ranging from T-shirts to basketball shorts to dirty socks to old shoes. That's also something he had a lot of: shoes.

The room smelled like cheap deodorant and sweat. It nearly choked me. I looked to the bed in the center on the far wall of the room. It was extremely messy, the black-and-red checkerboard patterned blanket half-way onto the carpet and most of the red and black pillows also tossed onto the floor. There was one pillow remaining on the bed, however. And that pillow happened to be holding Lea's head.

Lea was laying down on the bed, his head on the pillow and against the headboard, one arm over his chest and the other to his side, one leg out in front of him and the other hanging off of the bed. He was still dressed in his school uniform. His eyes were closed. Was he sleeping?

My heart began to beat at an irregular pace once again. My lips trembled and my fingers fidgeted with my pockets awkwardly. This was just perfect. He was asleep. I hate waking people up. They're always so startled that they have to gasp or jump which is enough to give me a heart attack. I took a few more steps towards his bed. The carpet was enough to muffle the sounds of my footsteps.

Lea's mouth was half-open. He was breathing really hard. It was hard to tell how long ago he had fallen asleep. It couldn't have been _that_ long. I kneeled down beside his bed. I honestly didn't know what to do next. I was here. But he was asleep. The thought of waking him up myself was somewhat terrifying. Why the hell was I so scared? I bottled up my fear and anxiety and pressed a hand onto the bed by his leg. I was hoping he would feel the movement of his mattress being pressed downward, but he didn't even flinch.

"Come on," I whispered. I looked at him, wondering if he had just heard me. "Lea," I said in a louder voice. Again, there was no reaction. "Lea?" This time I was using my normal voice. But he didn't seem to respond. "Don't make me push you." If anything, he just started to breathe harder!

I paced around his room, not sure what to do. I was thinking of anything I could do to wake him up that didn't involve shaking him. What if he woke up and asked why I was here? What if he wasn't expecting me? What if it was foolish to come here? We didn't even talk anytime after the ride home. For all I know he could have changed his mind. As I was pacing his room I heard him shift in his bed.

I snapped my head in his direction. His arms were now both on top of his chest, and his eyes were lazily opened. "Oh, sup." _Sup._ His one and only way of greeting people. He sat up in his bed, stretching his arms behind his head as he let out a long yawn. "How long have you been here?" His eyes still made him look half-asleep.

"Just a few minutes," I told him. "So...how was your sleep?"

Lea let out a small chuckle. "Not long enough." He put his other leg over the edge of his bed. "So how do you like my room? Messy, huh?"

"It's different," I gave him the honest truth. "Definitely the polar opposite of my own."

"Clean freak?" he asked me, jumping off of his bed and approaching me with his hand out. I awkwardly took his hand. I was going for a formal, soft shake of his hand but he grabbed my hand with such force that I felt my knuckles crack. He took his hand back and combed his hair upward with his fingers. "You met my mom?" I nodded. "Don't let her nice act fool you. She's Satan in women's clothing."

I smiled. Here I was, in someone else's room. In Lea's room. I've never thought I'd ever enter his messy domain. But here I was.

"What have you been doing since you got home?" I asked him. I figured I should start a simple conversation. Being here was awkward.

"When I got home I went right to work with washing the dishes," Lea answered. "After that I cleaned my room a bit." Did he really? I looked around the room but it looked as if he hadn't cleaned the place in months. "I laid down and watched some TV and fell asleep. Guess my mom turned the TV off. When I woke up, here you were."

"I see you never got dressed yet," I told him, pointing to his green shirt and khaki pants. Lea just shrugged. "So...what's on the agenda?" I was still confused as to what we would be doing over here. I'm not used to doing things with other people that aren't Naminé or Ienzo.

"How 'bout...we go outside and toss the football?" My shoulders fell when he said that. I absolutely did not want to go outside, tossing a football and getting all hot and sweaty. That was on the very bottom of the list of things I'd ever want to do in my lifetime. "We can talk about life and shit." His suggestion barely lifted my spirits. Sure, I loved to talk about stuff, but would that really be enough to not bore me out there? "We don't have to be out there long. I just wanna toss it for a few minutes." Okay, good. A few minutes was good. "I have to change first. These clothes are uncomfortable." He tugged at his belt and threw it to the floor.

"Uh, I can leave the room if you want," I said. Being in the room with him as he changed would have been awkward. I remembered in middle school, when gym class was mandatory, the coach had forced us to dress into our gym clothes in front of one another, and I've always been embarrassed to do so. I was really insecure with my pasty-white body. And I hated getting accused of staring at a lot of the boys.

In high school I had managed to skip out on getting dressed for the only two years of gym I had. I'd sit in the corner of the locker room, turning away from all of the guys as they revealed their bare chests and calves. You'd think being gay in a boy's locker room as every single boy is dressing out would be extremely lucky, but it was amazing how fast someone caught on to a boy deliberately staring at another guy's body.

"You don't have to leave, this'll only take a second," Lea told me as he grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up and over his head, flinging it onto his bed. I had told myself I wouldn't stare, but it was impossible. His chest was pale but it wasn't _as_ white as mine. His chest looked smooth and flat. His nipples looked pretty small. His arms revealed that he had quite a few muscles. Not enough to be considered "buff" but it was just the right amount to make any straight girl or gay guy go crazy. He didn't have too much fat on his bones, so from a distance if you weren't paying attention to his muscles, he'd look like a toothpick.

He walked over to his closet, opening the door and shuffling through the multitude of shirts hanging on a rack. Finally he did pick out a plain orange and gray muscle shirt which he quickly threw over his head. After putting his shirt on, he slipped out of his shorts without taking his shoes off. I was tempted to look away as soon as more of his legs began to show, but I couldn't help but to keep looking.

His boxer shorts underneath were gray with white stripes. I looked to his legs which looked pretty nice. Before looking at anything else, I quickly turned my head. I couldn't keep staring at him! It was extremely creepy on my part, and if he noticed at all it'd be very much awkward. When I looked back he was pulling up a bright orange pair of basketball shorts. That was definitely some getup. The perfect outfit to wear on the road in the dead of night so cars didn't run you over. It was that bright. I think it burned my eyes.

"Alright, let's go," Lea said, and the two of us walked towards his bedroom door. As we were walking out, he stopped me and stared into my eyes. "So tell me. How did my body look when you were oh so busy staring at me get undressed." I was speechless. My heart had literally stopped. I tried to formulate an apology but nothing escaped my lips other than a few _uhs._ Lea cracked a smile. "It's fine, man. You're gay, I'm hot, I get it. I'm so flattered." He chuckled at my still expressionless face, patting me on the shoulder and walking through the door before me.

I can't believe he noticed. If there was one thing I loved about Lea, it was that he was pretty open-minded, and didn't care if a gay guy stared at him as he got dressed. He took it as a compliment and went on with his life. I was still extremely embarrassed though. It took me a few moments to register that he had left the room, and I followed him.

We hadn't even gotten past the table in the kitchen when I heard Lea's mother say, "Where are you two off to?" Lea and I both looked to the direction of the sink, where his mother Kristi stood drinking a glass of water.

"Going throw the football," Lea replied.

"Supper will be done in an hour and a half," Kristi replied. _Supper_? I had already eaten right before I came here. If I stayed here long enough, did that mean I had to eat dinner here as well? She looked to me and asked, "I hope you like pork because that's what we're having." I didn't mind pork. At least she was fixing something I'd be able to stomach, as opposed to Naminé's grandmother fixing vegan-only food every time I went there. No wonder Naminé always had such an appetite every time she came to school.

"I'd love pork," I said politely.

Lea left me to go to the front door. On the side of the door by an electronic fireplace that I didn't notice was there before, were three school bags, one a bright pink, another a dull orange, and the last a dark red. He took his football out and opened the front door quietly, looking back to his grandpa to see if he had woke up. Thankfully, the old man was still asleep. I was getting the impression from both him and his mom that I wouldn't like that man very much.

I followed in Lea's direction when I heard a voice behind me ask, "Who's that?" It was a young girl's voice. Lea stopped in the doorway and I stopped by the couch, turning around to look at a girl that was either eleven or twelve years old. She had dark skin and dark, thick reddish-brown hair. This must have been the middle child in the family. She looked to Kristi.

"That's Lea's friend, Isa," Kristi answered.

"Hi," she said, a little confused. "I'm Lenora. Lea's sister." I figured that. She exchanged glances between me and Lea. "I didn't think you had any friends." She looked me in the eyes. "Why are you his friend?"

"Okay, time for homework, you," Kristi said, annoyed. "Grab your schoolbag and bring it over here." Lenora sighed and rushed as quietly as possible to the fireplace, grabbing the orange bag and carrying it to the table. She placed it on the tabletop and took out a folder.

I looked back to Lea who was waiting impatiently at the door. "I'm coming, I'm coming," I grumbled to myself, following him out the door. I closed the door softly and walked down the steps right behind him.

"Think fast!" I didn't think fast enough. The football hit me square in the chest, bouncing off and dropping to the cement. "Oh come on, you were supposed to catch it."

"I was barely off the second to last step and you expected me to catch it," I said, bending over to grab the football that had rolled into the grass to the right of me. "I don't know if you know this, but I suck at sports." I threw the football rather poorly at Lea, but he still managed to catch it with one hand. "I don't know how you're so good at it."

"So you admit to watching me at school too," Lea said with a smirk.

"What?" I asked, not sure what he had said at first. Suddenly the realization hit and my eyes went wide. "N-n-no, no, I don't watch you at school. I just occasionally look over and see you playing football with those other guys."

"Uh huh," Lea responded, running backwards with the football in his hand until he reached the center of the driveway in between the road and the trailer. He threw the football. I didn't expect it to go so far. I was surprised it even reached me. It did more than reach me. It soared over my head. I tried jumping to catch it, but it was too high in the air. It landed on the porch at the top of the stairs. I was forced to run up the stairs to grab it. "My bad!" he called to me.

"Yeah, sure," I replied, scooping up the ball with my hands and throwing it back down to him. The ball didn't make it far, landing in front of Lea's feet and bouncing to the left. Lea scrambled to catch it.

For the next several minutes we tossed the football. My arm was starting to ache. As I threw the ball more and more, I began to get the hang of it, but not by much. Sweat dotted my forehead. Even though I hated the heat, it didn't make me sweat nearly as much as some people. Lea, for example, was sweating buckets already, his hair flattened and matted to his forehead, his muscle shirt stained with sweat around the neck and armpits. With every swift movement the boy made, I could see the sweat flying off of his hair that was no longer perfectly spikey.

"So, got your eye on anyone?" Lea asked me. The question was so out of the blue that I almost dropped the football a few seconds after I caught it. I stared at Lea, trying to figure out what he was asking me. "You have a crush on anyone? Someone you wanna date?"

"Nah," I replied, throwing the football to Lea. We were both standing opposite each other in the center of the driveway, this time he was close to the house and I was in the direction of the road. "I mean, I see a lot of guys who are cute and all but I don't think I'd date any of them." It was an honest answer. "What about you?" He threw the ball back to me, which I barely caught with the tips of my fingers.

"I dunno," Lea said, holding his chin with his hand as if deep in thought. I threw the football to him which caught him off-guard, and he ended up dropping it. When he grabbed it again, he didn't throw it back to me. Instead he continued to think. "I hear Kairi's available."

"Don't even go there," I warned him. "Sora's probably going to swoop into her life again like he always does."

"You're right, those two have been an off-and-on thing since fucking elementary school."

"Can't get enough of each other, I suppose," I said. "How about Xion?"

"I heard from someone that she's actually a dude," Lea said, much to my surprise. "Think it's true?"

"I wouldn't listen to the rumors," I told him.

"Yeah, you're right," Lea said, finally throwing the football at me, which I so ungracefully caught in my arms, standing on one foot and trying to keep perfect balance. It failed. I landed on my ass. Lea laughed at me as I stood up on my wobbly legs. "Honesty, I don't know if I like anybody at the moment." I threw the football at Lea. Instead of throwing it back to me, he threw it to the porch, and it landed perfectly on the bench. "My arm's getting tired."

"My arm's been tired since I threw it the _first_ time," I complained, running up to Lea who stood next to the rusty red truck on the right side of the driveway. Lea sat on the back of the truck, patting the spot next to him as a way of asking me to sit down next to him. I took a seat on the side of him. The back of my jeans were probably going to be covered in rust when I sat up. "Whose truck is this for?"

"My Grandpa Lance," Lea said, rubbing the spot next to his leg. "Doesn't even drive this thing. Hasn't in years. Which is a shame. This thing used to look really nice." It was hard to picture it. "Oh, by the way, do you need the WiFi password?" I grabbed my phone through my pocket. That would have been nice to have, in case I had any important messages coming my way. I nodded, taking my phone out. "Lemme see," he said, grabbing it from my hands."

"Hey!"

"Mom doesn't like when people know our password," Lea answered, turning on my phone and going to the WiFi setup. He clicked on his home's internet network and typed in a password that took a long time to type in. When he was done, he handed the phone back to me. "All done."

"Good," I said, putting my phone back in my pocket. "Thanks." We sat in silence. It was around twenty minutes to five o'clock. I thought much more time had passed since I arrived, but I guess I was wrong. I swung my feet that hung over the edge of the back of the trunk we sat on. I felt short. Lea somehow managed to keep his feet pretty close to the ground.

Suddenly, I felt my phone vibrate. Not just once, either. Twice. Three times. I knew the difference between each of the vibrates on my phone. One of them was long and drawn out, repeating multiple times to signify someone calling me. One of them, the normal texting vibration, was a singe long vibration. A notification sent to me from YouTube to tell me that someone I subscribed to uploaded a new video was two short and quick vibrations. But the vibrations I felt in my pocket were shorter than the normal texting ones, yet longer than the ones from YouTube. So I knew for sure it was definitely coming from my FacePage Messenger app.

I took out my phone, turned the screen on, and clicked on the FacePage Messenger app. I had three new messages, each from the same person. _Marluxia_. Why was he texting me? I clicked on his messages and stared at them. I looked at the times they were sent. The first text came in some time after I left my house but before I arrived here. The second text came when I was still in Lea's bedroom. The third text came in not even a full minute ago.

 _Marluxia: Hey_

 _Marluxia: What are you doing?_

 _Marluxia: Are you at Lea's house?_

That boy was persistent, I'll give him that. I could definitely tell he wasn't at all fond with the idea of me and Lea hanging out outside of school. I didn't see why, though. Marluxia was practically the reason the redhead and I were pushed together in the first place. Maybe he was jealous. Was he still in love with me? Or did he have feelings for Lea? I didn't want to message Marluxia.

Lea noticed the way I was staring at my phone. He put a hand on my shoulder and asked, "Everything alright?"

"Yeah..." I said, though that wasn't the truth, and Lea knew that. I looked at Lea and pushed his hand away from me. "Marluxia's been messaging me. I don't really want to talk to him."

"Then don't," was Lea's simple answer.

He was right. I shouldn't let Marluxia ruin a perfectly good day. I turned off my phone and was about to stuff it in my pocket when I felt another vibration. Part of me wanted to keep it in my pocket and not even look at that message. But another part of me was telling me to open my phone again and read that text. Which I ended up doing.

 _Marluxia: I can see that you read my texts._

My heart stopped. There was no escaping him. Marluxia hated when I would look at his texts but not respond right away. That was the cause of many of our fights during our relationship. I put my phone on mute and shoved it in my pocket. Marluxia was _not_ going to beat me.

After fifteen to twenty minutes of sitting on the back of his grandfather's truck, Lea and I both decided to go back inside, back into the nice air-conditioned trailer so we could finally cool off. I looked to the clock on the wall in the kitchen, noticing that it was a few minutes after five o'clock. My hair was slightly damp from sweat, and it was quickly cooling off, feeling really nice on my scalp. The air smelled great. Lea's mom stood by the pot on the stove where she was cooking a pork roast.

"It'll be done soon," she said, not looking up from the pot. "I'll give it another ten minutes."

We walked passed the kitchen and back into Lea's room. Lea jumped onto his bed, stretching his arms and legs as far apart as possible as he laid down and relaxed. "That was fun," he said to me, closing his eyes and heaving a sigh.

"Sure, I guess," was my reply. "It definitely got my heart pumping from something other than anxiety." I scratched my head through my blue hair. The sweat was freezing cold to the touch. I was going to tell him how I was afraid to come here at first, but then I quickly decided against it. What would be the point? He would have taken it as if I were saying I didn't want to hang out with him, which was partially correct, but in his mind I might have sounded mean.

Lea kicked his feet, his shoes easily slipping off and flying across the room, slamming into the wall, barely missing his television. He was wearing bright orange socks with darker orange stripes towards the top. The bottoms of his socks were definitely worn out, looking dark from the amount his feet probably sweat in those shoes. The smell added to the room from all of the sweat and the fact Lea just took his shoes off wasn't pleasant. I guess this is what any normal teenage boy's room smelled like. Not like freshly sprayed air freshener like my room did.

I decided to follow his lead, sitting down and slipping out of my shoes. I wore white socks underneath which were way too hot on my feet so I decided to take those off as well, stuffing them inside of my shoes and pushing my shoes against the wall next to Lea's. The carpet felt good underneath my soles.

"I'm so hungry," Lea grumbled. "Mom, is it almost done?" He was just loud enough so Kristi could hear in the kitchen.

"Shh," his mom said back, which didn't make sense because that was just as loud as Lea was. "It's almost finished. Come help set the table."

"But—"

"Say but again, boy," his mom snapped, sounding just a tad bit menacing.

"Ugh," Lea growled, hopping out of bed. He silently cursed to himself and limped towards the door. Did he hurt he foot coming out of bed? He left the doorway to go and fix the table for us all to eat.

I was going to be eating dinner in Lea Kasai's house. This was different.

I walked out of the room.

 **.**

 **Did you enjoy this chapter? I enjoyed writing in it. Not much happened. Isa arrived at Lea's house, he met Lea's mom and one of his sisters, they threw the football around (and I'm referring to the American-version of football), and Marluxia was somewhat harassing Lea through text...what's going to happen over dinner with Lea's family? Find out next time!**


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